Wynn Resorts plans to see its WynnBET endeavors explode in the latter part of 2021.
During Wynn’s fourth-quarter earnings report late last week, Chief Executive Officer Matt Maddox spent time discussing the company’s bullish approach to online sports betting.
Despite being relatively late to the party, Maddox referred to the addressable market for online US sports betting and iGaming as “quite an opportunity.”
WynnBET in ‘very good position’
Wynn added Colorado and Michigan to New Jersey in the WynnBET portfolio. It also has market access for the online sportsbook in these states for the coming months:
The company also acquired BetBull in October, investing $80 million into a new joint venture, Wynn Interactive, with the UK company’s former shareholders.
“As we build our strength and build our brand campaign and roll out in these states, we think we’re going to be in a very good position by the back half of this year is the NFL season kicks off again,” Maddox said. “So Wynn Interactive is a big focus of ours and we’re seeing all the right things that we were hoping that we would see right now in particular with the revenues growing almost 50% over the last three months.”
Achieving market parity with WynnBET
Craig Billings, Wynn president and chief financial officer, said the company will focus on launching in states it feels can be appropriately scaled. With that, he mentioned new product launches come approximately every two weeks.
“Our focus there is making sure that we can achieve market parity in order to do that,” Billings said. “I would say that’s our number one focus. And it consumes 40% of our time on Wynn Interactive.”
For now, Wynn Interactive’s focus is on targeted performance marketing through ad networks, Billings said. He expects more third-party mass media marketing later this year, to ensure the product is where Wynn wants it.
Earlier on the call, Maddox alluded to be on the lookout for pending media and partnership deals.
Wynn execs with positive quarter takeaways
Wynn posted operating revenues of $686 million in the fourth quarter, nearly a 60% fall from 2019. The company’s full-year operating revenues dropped almost 70% year-over-year to $2.1 billion.
The executives, however, boasted all Wynn proprieties went EBITDA positive in the fourth quarter, generating $39.4 million of EBITDA. Maddox expects growth in the company will continue in each market as physical properties come online and the entire business is streamlined.
While the earnings call positively framed the land-based properties in the US and Macau, the increased focus on Interactive comes as those entities have struggled recently.
Las Vegas comeback
Maddox mentioned October had “green shoots” as room bookings reached 1,650 per night and the month contributed $14 million in EBITDA for the quarter.
Room bookings fell back down to 700 per night from November through January. The lack of tourists helps explain the dramatic lag between Nevada and New Jersey’s handles at the end of 2020.
On the bright side, Maddox said Super Bowl weekend occupancy at the Las Vegas resort will be at almost 50% for the first time since October.
